For the purpose of the present description, a “beverage” is meant to include any human-consumable liquid substance, such as coffee, tea, hot or cold chocolate, milk, soup, baby food or the like. A “capsule” is meant to include any pre-portioned beverage ingredient or combination of ingredients (hereafter called “ingredient”) within an enclosing packaging of any suitable material such as plastic, aluminum, a recyclable and/or bio-degradable material and combinations thereof, including a soft pod or a rigid cartridge containing the ingredient.
Certain beverage preparation machines use capsules containing an ingredient to be extracted or to be dissolved and/or an ingredient that is stored and dosed automatically in the machine or else is added at the time of preparation of the drink. Certain beverage machines comprise liquid filling means that include a pump for liquid, usually water, which pumps the liquid from a source of water that is cold or indeed heated through heating means, e.g. a thermoblock or the like. Certain beverage preparation machines are arranged to prepare beverages by using a centrifugal extraction process. The principle mainly consists in providing beverage ingredient in a container of the capsule, feeding liquid in the capsule and rotating the capsule at elevated speed to ensure interaction of liquid with powder while creating a gradient of pressure of liquid in the capsule; such pressure increasing gradually from the center towards the periphery of the receptacle. As liquid traverses the coffee bed, extraction of the coffee compounds takes place and a liquid extract is obtained that flows out at the periphery of the capsule.
Typically, it is suitable to offer to the user a range of capsules of different types containing different ingredients (e.g., different coffee blends) with specific taste characteristics, to prepare a variety of different beverages (e.g., different coffee types) with a same machine. The characteristics of the beverages can be varied by varying the content of the capsule (e.g., coffee weight, different blends, etc.) and by adjusting key machine parameters such as the supplied liquid volume or temperature, the rotational speed, the pressure pump. Therefore, there is a need for identifying the type of capsule inserted in the beverage machine to enable the adjustment of the brewing parameters to the inserted type. Moreover, it may also be desirable for capsules to embed additional information, for example safety information like use-by date or production data like batch numbers.
WO2010/026053 relates to a controlled beverage production device using centrifugal forces. The capsule may comprise a barcode provided on an outside face of the capsule and which enables a detection of the type of capsule and/or the nature of ingredients provided within the capsule in order to apply a predefined extraction profile for the beverage to be prepared.
It is known from the art, for example in document EP1764015A1, to print a local identifying barcode on the circular crown of a coffee wafer for use in a conventional coffee brewing machine.
Co-pending international patent application PCT/EP11/057670 relates to a support adapted to be associated with or be a part of a capsule for the preparation of a beverage. The support comprises a section on which at least one sequence of symbols is represented so that each symbol is sequentially readable, by a reading arrangement of an external device, while the capsule is driven in rotation along an axis of rotation, each sequence codes a set of information related to the capsule. Such invention enables to make a large volume of coded information available, such as about 100 bits of redundant or non-redundant information, without using barcode readers having moving parts like a scanning element which may raise severe concerns in terms of reliability. Another advantage is also to be able to read the code support by rotating the capsule while the capsule is in place, in a ready to brew position in the rotary capsule holder. However, one disadvantage lies in that those reading conditions remain specifically difficult for different reasons, such as because the incoming and outgoing rays of light must traverse the capsule holder when the capsule is held by the capsule holder, causing the loss of a great part of energy and/or because the light rays may incur significant angular deviations due to particular mechanical constraints born by the rotating assembly of the machine and possibly coming from different origins (e.g., vibrations, wearing, unbalanced mass distribution, etc.). Furthermore, it is not suitable to compensate the loss of reflectivity by improving the performance of the light emitting and sensing devices of the machine as it would make the beverage preparation machine too expensive.
Dutch patent NL1015029 relates to a code structure comprising a carrier with a barcode disposed thereon in the form of parallel bars, comprising first bars with a first reflection coefficient and second bars with a second reflection coefficient lower than the first reflection coefficient, wherein the first bars are made of a substantially retro-reflective material and the second bars are made of mirror-reflective material. This bar code structure is specially designed to be recognized from a greater distance by already existing laser scanners, more particularly, by the use of retro-reflective materials, i.e., material wherein the peak of the reflection characteristic is measured at 180 degrees. However, such code structure poses a problem of properly detecting the reflected signals of the first and second bars due to the angular distance between the two reflected signals. Such solution is therefore not adapted to a compact reading system to be installed in a beverage preparation device.
Therefore, there is a need for providing an improved code support which enables to provide a reliable reading in the particular conditions met in a beverage machine using capsules for the preparation of the beverage.
The present invention relates to an improved code support and capsule comprising said support in particular for providing an enhancement of the optical signal generated from the code support. In particular, a problem met with an optical code on a capsule is that light-reflecting and light-absorbing signals can be difficult to discriminate.
Another problem lies in that the support is relatively complex to integrate to the packaging structure forming the capsule itself and, in particular, manufacturing packaging constraints exist, such as the respect of proper material thickness for a proper forming of the capsule.
The present invention aims at providing solutions alleviating at least partially these problems.
In particular, there is a need for reliably reading information on a proper code support associated to or part of a capsule, in particular, a support able to generate an enhanced signal in particularly difficult reading conditions found in a beverage machine such as one providing extraction of the beverage by centrifugation obtained by rotating the capsule about its center. There is also a need for providing a support that is adapted for an easy integration to a capsule packaging material.